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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Foundation of Japanese Honarary Debts

Today October 9,2012. the monthly demonstration in front of the Japanese Embassy in The Hague, The Netherlands, took place again. Petition 215, 'Educate your people and politicians, be generous' was delivered to the Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts NGO, Status Roster

His Excellency Yoshihiko Noda
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague. October 9,2012
Petition: 215
Subject: Educate your people and politicians, be generous

Excellency,

In our previous petition we suggested that Japan does not follow the proverb "Silence lends consent", but instead takes action to resolve our difference of opinion. The window of opportunity is there. Opening that window would improve Japan's international position greatly. The territorial disputes with Japan's neighbors are a problem which requires your immediate attention, but at the same time gives you an opportunity in gaining respect and support by solving the Honorary Debts.

Prime Minister,
The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea Kim Sung-Hwan made it clear in a press conference at the United Nations in New York why Korea does not accept Japan's present attitude any longer. According to Associated Press Kim said:"Japan's failure to educate its people properly about the past, as reflected in Japan's politicians denial of war crimes, is the root cause of its territorial dispute in the region, including over islands disputed with China and Russia. It is a sharp contrast with what Germany did to get support and respect from its neighboring countries after World War Two."

Prime Minister,
In the forthcoming United Nations Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights council in Geneva, the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts will remind in person the Japanese delegates of the statement made by Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida to the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Dirk Stikker in 1951: " the Japanese government might want voluntary to deal with in its own way as a matter of good conscience or of enlightened expediency."
The voluntary meager-ten dollar cents per captivity day solatium was an insult to the Dutch from the Dutch East Indies and caused more harm and hatred to the Japanese. The Germans got the support and respect from their neighbors as the German government was generous, educated its people and politicians and made the denial of war crimes a criminal offense with severe penalties.

Prime Minister,
The territorial disputes give you the opportunity to be generous and to gain support and respect in solving the World War Two Post Traumatic Stress Disorder of the Dutch from the Dutch East indies.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts,

J.F. van Wagtendong
President

________________________________________________________________

The pressure on Japan is getting bigger and bigger. I wonder how much longer they are able to deny the atrocities they inflicted on Human beings during World War Two.
This story I read the other day was written awhile ago, and I like to write it as a reminder: Like what it says on the billboard which has been setup in New York: Do You Remember?

The Emperor Hirohito's secret order:

August 1944
More and more documents, which were intercepted by the U.S. Army Secret Service, are being declassified and their content opened to the public.Such as the emperor's: secret order.(August 1944) to eliminate all imprisoned enemy-persons, both Western and Asians, as soon as the Allies invaded Japan, or made warfare for Japan difficult. The camp commanders were free to choose the liquidation method most appropriate for the situation. The original document offers a choice of poisons, poisonous gasses, encleavement, drowning and mass bombardment. There was one condition----Let no prisoner escape and do not leave any traces."Do You Remember??

Japan you surrenderedon the 15th of August, but up till the22ndof August 1945 you still transported women and children in cramped box wagons to the Ambarawa region, from various parts of Java, where they were cramped in the overpopulated barracks. My mother remembered that oh so well. We, my mother and I were taken from Moentilan to Banjoebiroe. The train ride was suffocating. The train was overfull. The smell of women and children getting sick and throwing up and relieving themselves on the spot was so terrible.At the time I was only 4 years old, but for years I was scared to death for trains. My mother would have a hard time to calm me down.
On hindsight, the concentration of women and children undoubtedly meant to be able to handle the planned total liquidation as efficient as possible.

Oh.... how lucky my mother and I, her sister and her two children have been, that the U.S. decided to drop the A-Bombs. It saved millions of people in Asia.
Also from personal testimonies it appeared that towards the end of the war the preparations of the liquidation was in full swing.

Adriaan Kannegieter a Dutch marine sailor reports in his manuscript: " I ended up as a Slave Laborer on the Burma-Railway," that in his last camp he and his prison mates were ordered to dig trenches in the earth 6ft ( 2 meters) wide by 3ft ( 1 meter) deep and machine-gun hills in each corner of the campsite." This was on August 15, 1945, the day Japan surrendered, but we did not have a clue. We only understood what they meant to do to us...... and we were feverishly discussing what we should do if the Japs started to do what they were meaning to do. With the prospect of being slaughtered like cattle any time, we were going through very devastating days."

Martin Haar another Dutch prisoner of war who was lastly in Bodjo slave camp at Pare Pare (Sulawesi Indonesia ) for building airstrips, describes a similar experience. Of his group of 594 only 368 survived at the time that they were ordered to dig tunnels in the mountain side:"In order to safeguard you from the allied air assaults", the Japs explained. However a mate who was a Dutch mining engineer told them not to believe their guards." These tunnels are meant for easy liquidation. One or two hand grenades are sufficient to let the tunnels come down. We will be dead and buried and no one will ever find out."

This liquidation order of all prisoners in the occupied Asian regions was intercepted by the Americans. They knew that a quarter million allied prisoners and uncounted for Asian prisoners were at risk.They also knew that Japan was ready for chemical and biological warfare ( first attempt on the U.S. West coast was made in 1944, but failed due to technological shortcomings) as well as for an atomic bomb assault although Japan's A-Bomb was only small in size and destruction capacity.
Nevertheless, initially an invasion of Kyushu and Hoikkado was planned. Two dates were set- the 1st of November 1945 and the 1st of March 1946, dependant on the weather.
However, as of April 1945 large troop movements in the direction Kyushu were spotted. Even on the 17th of July a new division arrived; which made the number of troops over 1.6 million. The American High Commander calculated that an invasion would cost a lot of Americans lives. In fact they knew quite well by the experience of the Normandy Invasion on July 4th, 1944 ( D-Day ) what was in store. On top of that there was another risk from the side of the USSR (Russia) Mc'Arthur wanted to avoid by all means the Russians arriving in Japan first and taking sole control of Japan, as they had done in Europe.

The majority of the millions of prisoners were not expected to live already near starved and sick prisoners of the Japanese concentration camps would not have survived until November 1945. Let alone until March 1946!

My whole life I felt the pain from my mother. I could not understand her struggle,her nightmares.
I was only 5 years old when were freed. When my mother passed away, its when I found this pouch with letters and all information about the Japanese camps, and where my father had died working as a slave for the Japanese, which shocked me. I knew than, that my mother had been struggling with Post war Traumatic Stress Disorder.

If Japan would have acknowledge and apologized about all the war crimes they committed, I think my mother could have forgiven them. But the hatred she had for Japan was not to describe.

The monument in Arnhem, The Netherlands.My fathers name is on the marble wall, Klaas van der Wal.and all the names from the men who died building that infamous rail road track through the jungle as Japanese slave laborers.

2 comments:

I continue to be disgusted at the Japanese government and publics lack of shame and remorse and guilt. I find it offensive that we are so tied to that country economically and politically. They should be a pariah state.Thank you again for keeping light on the atrocities. You are a good woman and a good daughter to your mothers memory. Bless you.

Thank you Christine. I promised myself as long as Japan denies all atrocities they inflicted on human beings during world war two, I will keep writing on my blog in memory of my mother my father and her sister and husband,and all women and children who suffered so immensely of what the Japanese military did to them during that senseless war 1941-1945.